Composition of the 9th LHR

[Guest Bill Woerlee]

Mates

This letter was posted on another forum although I will answer it here.

HI,

I am new to this so please bear with me.

My dad was a trooper in the 9th LH Brigade:

1331 Charles Philp (not Philip) GRIGG

(Philp is his grandmother's maiden name).

Can anyone tell me how many soldiers would have been in the Regiment, and what other groupings they had? I have been told that in combat they rode in groups of four, and that the youngest was left to hold the horses after the others dismounted to continue in one-on-one fighting.

I am also interested in roughly how many farriers would have been in the Regt. I recently received a photograph of two men, said to be from the 9th LH, in the desert, at portable forges. I think one is my father. The photo came from http://www.sutcliffegallery.com.au and the owner tells me he has three photo albums of the 9th LH which he is restoring. He has a list of people interested who he will contact as the photos are done.

I look forward to replies.

[Guest Bill Woerlee]

Faye

G'day matess

Here's a little run down on your father:

1331 Pte Grigg, Charles Philp, 18, Bootmaker, Single, Malden, Victoria; Mother Mrs Grigg Mary, Malden, Victoria. Methodist. Enlisted 28 March 1915. Embarked on the SS "Hawkes Bay", 21 October 1915 from Melbourne with the 11th Reinforcements, 9th Light Horse Regiment. Returned to Australia, 17 July 1919 as a Private. Transferred to 9th Light Horse Regiment C Squadron, D Troop. Reported from Hospital to 9th Light Horse Regiment for duty, 27 December 1916. Punishment: 7 days field punishment 2 for disobeying orders, promulgated 27 December 1916. FGCM Punishment: 28 days field punishment 2 for using insolent language to an officer, promulgated 2 January 1917.

With that on his record, it looks like he did not take to fools very kindly.

I will answer your general questions in another post.

Cheers

Bill

[Guest Bill Woerlee]

Faye

G'day matess

As to the general information about the 9th, I will post a chapter - rough as it is - from my book on this subject. I hope this gets you closer and more in touch with your father.

Cheers

Bill

Appendix 1 - The 9th Light Horse Regiment

The 9th Light Horse Regiment was formed in October 1914 and saw service against Turkey until 1918 and then in Egypt in 1919. They were involved in all the major operations during that period from the craggy hills of Gallipoli to the sands of the Sinai, through Palestine to Damascus. They lived hard, fought bravely and saw their term of service to the end. On returning to Australia the men became living evidence for the myths that they inadvertently created.

Gullett mythologised the Light Horsemen with these gushing words:

“Looking back upon that throng of great-hearted countrymen riding in to enlist for service overseas, one ceases to feel astonishment at the war deeds of the Australian light horsemen. For these men were the very flower of their race. All were pioneers, or the children of pioneers. Ninety seven out of every hundred came from pure British stock; they were children of the most restless, adventurous, and virile individuals of that stock; many, deserting in their youth the limited holdings of their pioneer fathers near the coast, had followed the explorers' lonely footsteps and "pushed the outposts further out. " All were workers; the Australian countryside is not yet old enough to support luxurious drones. All were men of resource, initiative, and resolution; all were accustomed from their earliest boyhood to carry responsibility, and to take an intelligent interest in the growth of crops or the breeding and care of live-stock. All were horsemen of various degrees of excellence; not mere riders of educated horses, but men who had from their school-days undertaken, as a matter of honour and pride or of necessity, the breaking and backing of bush-bred colts and the riding of any horse that came their way. Their horsemanship came next to, if not sometimes before, their religion.”

Sentiments like these debase the men who served in the Light Horse. It turns them from ordinary humans to some force of supermen, something that neither they nor their personal lives could ever match. It is a fantasy, but one propagated at the end of the Great War.

But who were these men of the 9th Light Horse Regiment?

Apart from a few professional soldiers, everyone else was just an ordinary bloke. Some 2,836 men served with the 9th Light Horse Regiment. Many men joined the regiment through direct recruitment and then moved onto other units, mainly those that went to France. Others transferred into the 9th from other units and later on transferred out again. Some men joined for a brief period and then deserted while others were discharged because of venereal disease. They were all sorts from the most intelligent and diligent to slothful malingerers. There were brutes and bullies, kind men, good cobbers and loners.

Over 12 per cent were called Bill while a further 8 per cent carried the name Jim, making up just over 20 per cent of the men serving with the 9th having these names. As a consequence, Light Horsemen were affectionately known as the Billjims. It’s not for nothing that they received this sobriquet.

Many men came from small country towns that gave the regiment its rural flavour. It was this widespread geographic pull of recruits that gave birth to the legend that the light horse was drawn from the rural yeomanry and so were excellent horsemen. The reality is a tad bit different. Antony Bluett, a soldier with the Honourable Artillery Company came into contact with many Australians. He writes about these experiences but even in 1917 the horseman myth had taken firm hold. He makes the following observation:

The popular idea, I believe, is that all Australians are born in the saddle and that they dash about doing wonderful things with a lariat before they are out of long clothes. This is ludicrously wide of the mark. The percentage of Australians who can ride at all is less than that in England; and very few of the good horsemen are comfortable for some time on an ordinary English trotting-horse. Their own horses have only two gaits: the lope and the gallop. [Antony Bluett, “With Our Army in Palestine”, London, (1919), p. 174]

The only time this legend came close to reality occurred on 11 February 1915 when the first contingent of the 9th Light Horse Regiment on board HMAT A10 “Karoo” departed. Of the 382 men who boarded, 209 men [55 per cent] came from various major cities; 161 men [42 per cent] came from rural towns and localities; and, 12 men [3 per cent] did not state a current address. As the war progressed, this balance rapidly went in the other direction. Thenceforth the bulk of the recruits drawn into the regiment lived in either Melbourne or Adelaide. They were city men who had little connection with the bush. Just over a quarter of the regiment came from the rural areas while the balance from the capital cities. About 27 per cent of the men who served came from an agricultural background which presupposed a knowledge of horses and the ability to ride them. Most of the men were unskilled labourers who lived hard and difficult lives eking out a living. They were a hard drinking mob and most smoked.

While they all professed a religious conviction, it seems to have been more perfunctory than actual. On their attestation papers 44 per cent declared that they were from the Church of England denomination, this was more done to conform than out of conviction. The next largest denomination was Methodists with some 20 per cent adherents. The Catholics came third with 15 per cent and the Presbyterians with 9 per cent. A few declared themselves as agnostic while a great many, some 4 per cent did not declare any religious affiliation.

As a group, the average age was 24 but this is rather misleading, as 11 per cent of the men were 21, the single largest cohort in the regiment. The cohorts that held over 7 per cent of the regiment included 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 respectively. The average age of 24 only held 5 per cent of the regiment. The youngest recruit was 17 and the oldest snuck in at 50 years old.

Most men who served with the Light Horse survived the experience. Over 11 per cent of those who served, or people terms, 324 men, died during the war. Their deaths varied from being killed in action, dying of wounds, illness or of accidents. Gallipoli was the charnel house that killed most of the men from the regiment. That campaign took the lives of 105 men. The regiment lost another 86 men through death from January 1916 to August 1919. The balance of the deaths, 133 men, died once they left the regiment and went to the Western Front. Sadly, of the 382 men who embarked upon the “Karoo”, 75 died as a consequence of the war [20 per cent] while the balance, 307 men returned back to Australia. This deaths suffered by this cohort comprised 23 per cent of the total death toll suffered by the regiment.

One of the more outstanding features about the casualties suffered by the 9th is the low rate once the regiment left Gallipoli. For the next three years the 9th took part in all the major actions in the Sinai, Palestine and Syria. During this time, the regiment lost 66 men through combat, or 2 per cent of the regiment. That is a testimony to their remarkable abilities as soldiers.

Those who were too injured or ill to return to duties numbered some 664 men or 24 per cent of the regiment. Needless to say some of these casualties also occurred amongst those who transferred to fight in France. In essence, some 35 per cent of those men who served in the regiment became casualties in one form or another and took no further part in the war.

The Light Horsemen were fierce fighters who did not surrender easily. The regiment lost 16 men as prisoners of war. Of that number, the Turks captured 8 men and the balance was taken on the Western Front. Of those 8 captured by the Turks, two died of illness while in custody and another two died of wounds subsequent to being rescued.

In contrast to this number, the regiment captured in excess of 10,000 Turks during the war. The differentials between the two forces is palpable. The statistic is not quoted to suggest the Turks were risible foes. Far from it. They were well led, well supplied and highly motivated soldiers. The bulk of the prisoners taken by the 9th occurred when the Turks believed that the war was over and there was no point in dying for a lost cause. Until that time the number of captives taken by the 9th was in the hundreds.

To understand the men in the regiment it is important to understand the nature of the organisation in which they found themselves. In the Light Horse, a regiment is comprised of various elements and is part of a larger military organisation. Below is a mud map of military hierarchy as seen by the men at the bottom.

The prime unit of the regiment is the section comprising four men. It is the section in which the men shared all their intimate experiences. They lived, shared bivvies, ate together, rode together, fought together and died together. The section was most of the world the men ever saw.

The next world experienced by the men was the troop. Each troop comprised ten sections. It was in the troop that the basic orders were given for the daily tasks. The troop afforded the men protection and connection with the rest of the army. Again, the troop was a complete world to the individual. They rarely ever saw beyond its boundaries. Anything else was part of the officers’ world.

Four troops made up a squadron. A squadron was the smallest, self sustaining independent unit in the regiment. They carried their baggage on their own transport, had their own quartermaster sergeant and basically were expected to hold two hundred yards of front line when in action.

Each regiment comprised three squadrons although at times a fourth would be added. Supervising all this activity was a distinct troop in the regiment known as headquarters. They were primarily the administrators who made sure everything was in order, supplies arrived and brigade schemes carried out. The regiment was required to hold a front line of 400 yards made up of two squadrons on the line and one in reserve.

The Brigade was the unit that contained all the supply services to keep the regiments in the field. A brigade comprised three regiments, a signals section, a field ambulance, a machine gun squadron, a mobile veterinarian unit, an artillery battery, a supply train and all the panoply of command. In charge of these men was the Brigadier General while the most important person in the brigade was his executive officer, the Brigade Major.

Each brigade is included in a Division that is the next organisational arm within the military structure. A mounted division usually contained three brigades of light horse and all the services required for keeping the men in the field. It is essentially the concentration of all the headquarters services of the different units into a discrete and self-supporting unit. In charge is a Major General, a rank striven to by all ambitious officers as it is considered to be the first of the independent commands.

Overseeing the division is a Corps, usually made up of two or more divisions. In charge is a Lieutenant General. Above this is the Army made up of at least two corps and supervised by a General.

Within the military there is a strict division between the officers and enlisted men. This was strictly enforced by military law. General Order No. 20 dealt with the idea of Discipline. A Routine Order had this to say: “The attention of the GOC has been drawn to cases in which officers have been consorting with NCO’s and men in hotels, in the street, and other places. Such a practice is contrary to the regulations and customs of the service and is entirely subversive to discipline, and the GOC will hold Commanding Officers responsible that it is put a stop to. All ranks should be reminded that a strict observance of the proper relationship between officers and men reflects credit on a private soldier and his regiment, as much as on the Officers.” The fact that a great many officers received field commissions from the ranks did not alter this situation. Regardless of the officer’s origin within the military, once an officer meant that his friends in the ranks had to be kept at arms’ length. Needless to say this caused a great deal of difficulty with the officers and men in a formal sense, but in areas of combat, the previous close relationships came to the fore. In these circumstances combat reduces men to being equals and it is the leadership quality of the officers that gave the men confidence to follow the officer regardless of his origins.

The work of the light horse was different to that of cavalry or infantry. They were mobile infantry. Lightly armed but extremely quick, they formed an elite force used to probe enemy weaknesses and then exploit them. Unlike cavalry, they had no swords or lances and mostly fought dismounted. They would ride up to a position, dismount out of gun range and move towards their position. This required the extensive use of horse handlers. In every section, one man looked after the four horses. Essentially, one quarter of every squadron was not able to be part of the action. When the action was over, the horse holder returned to the lines so the men could mount. This was a difficult manoeuvre requiring continuous rehearsal.

The average weight carried by the horse was about 150 kilograms. This was made up by the following items listed in the field regulations:

1x pair Boots, Brown (Ankle Height), lace up.

1x pair Spurs, Straps, and Butterflies

1x pair Leggings, Brown Leather, spiral strap

1x pair Breeches, Bedford Cord/Woollen Surge, calf lacing

1x Under Shirt

1x pair Braces

1x AIF Service Dress Jacket c/w collar dogs, buttons, Shoulder titles (AUSTRALIA), Colour Patches and badges of rank, if applicable

1x Hat K.F.F. c/w Woollen puggaree, chin strap, rising sun badge, and cockade as applicable to unit

1x Bandolier, 9 Pocket, Brown Leather

1x Waist Belt, 13/4” brass Buckle, Brown Leather or Sam Browne, Brown Leather

2x Pouch Ammunition, 10 round, Brown Leather

2x Pouch Ammunition, 15 round, Brown Leather

1x Bayonet Frog, Brown Leather

1x Bayonet and Scabbard, 1907 patent.

1x Cavalry Type Water Bottle

1x Haversack, canvas, leather strap, 1908 Patent.

Horse: -

1x Saddle, 1902/1912 U.P., c/w girth, surcingle and appropriate patent Stirrups

1x Headstall-Bridle, 1902 patent.

1x Neck Rope, white

2x Saddle Blanket, Green/Brown Woollen

1x Shoe Case and straps

1x Saddle Wallets, with Double Buckle ‘Y’ straps

1x Mess Tin, cloth/canvas cover and straps

1x Feed Bag

1x Greatcoat, Rolled and strapped in front of saddle

1x Bivvy Sheet, Rolled with 2nd Saddle Blanket behind saddle under spoon

This plus the rider added to about 118 kilograms, it being estimated that the average weight of a rider being some 72 kilograms. Then we add to the list a gas mask, gas cape, neck chain, picket peg, grooming tools, spare clothes and 20 kilograms of rations for horse and man. In addition to this there was need for the SMLE .303” Mk III, the standard issue rifle of the light horse. It was a heavy load requiring both mount and man to be extremely fit.

The older hands obtained horses that were mild and slow moving. Sprightly and spirited horses were given to the new chums. Docile horses were keenly sought after. Their value became evident during nightlong marches. A docile horse would just keep plodding on behind the horse in front allowing the rider to sleep in the saddle.

A symbiotic relationship grew between man and horse. Without the horse a man was lost. Both man and beast depended on each other for survival. The bond that grew between them was immense. Many soldiers cried over the loss of their mount either through death, wounding or at the end of the war, sale.